Jeju Open Mystery Bounty (1,520,000 KRW)

After battling through 28 levels and outlasting a field of 358 players. that pushed the total prize pool to KRW 250,027,200 (~USD 169,954), Australia's Joseph Kim hoisted his first poker trophy and scored the biggest live cash of his career. In addition to the champion's purse, Kim collected an additional 8 bounties worth KRW 10,200,000 (~$6,887) to bring his total payout to KRW 40,200,000 (~$27,148).

I'm very, very pumped. I was tired all day yesterday and today, but I'm feeling really happy now. It's been a bit back and forth, but luckily, I had a good hand.

Kim started Day 2 as 10th overall, but was massive chip leader at his table that allowed him to continuously chip up. A pivotal moment came in Level 19 when he knocked out two players vaulting him into 2nd in chips.

However, the final table draw was anything but good, sandwiched among three bigger stacks - two to his left and one to his right - until a game changing hand against the chip leader Tao Li reversed their roles. Kim extracted over 20 bb with the nut flush for a 40 bb swing.

Taking control with four players left, Kim called two all-ins delivering another double knockout with 3♠ 3♥ against their over cards A♦ J♠ and K♣ Q♣ .

So, with that hand, I put them both on high cards, and I figured they would have each other's outs. I had enough chips that even if I lost, I could recover. So I went for it, and it worked in my favor - I got both of them out. I guess you have to get lucky at some point.

Heads up against Linjian Liu proved challenging with plenty of all-ins that saw both players on the brink of elimination. KIm finally closed it, picking up K♠ K♦ in the big blind when Liu jammed 27BB into him with T♦ 7♣ .

With this victory, Kim intends to ride the momentum saying,

Today was the first tournament. Tomorrow, I’ll win the main event, and hopefully, I’ll do well in the other events. I plan to play four or five more events, before heading back to Australia. This trip turned out great! I didn’t come here specifically for this, but while I was in Seoul, I looked up tournaments and found this one. I’m really glad I came. The venue is very nice, and I’m staying at the hotel here, so it's easy to get back home.

Congrats to the champ and good luck on the upcoming events!

No high cards on 2♣ T♥ 5♠ 7♥ 7♠ keep the small pair ahead, granting Kim two more bounties and a 3 to 1 chip lead going into the heads up.

Zhang stays ahead on K♠ and 8♦ , scooping a much needed double up.

Short stack Qinghong Zhang min-opens 160,000 from the button holding K♣ 9♣ and big blind Joseph Kim defends to see the flop 7♣ 7♦ 6♠ that gets checked to the turn K♦ where Kim leads 175,000. Having hit top pair, Zhang opts for a call, the board completes J♥ and gets checked to Zhang, who finds a super tight check back and avoids disaster when Kim shows A♣ 7♥ trips.

With the Final 9 determined, chip leader Yunpeng Bai is in a great spot to dominate the final table, having position on all the big stacks.